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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  April 20, 2013 8:00am-10:00am PDT

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i'm wolf blitzer live in boston. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world for special live coverage of the capture of the surviving suspect in the boston marathon bombing. the terror is over after five days of tragedy and anxiety. boston can finally rest. >> boston police department just tweeted suspect in custody. let me repeat that around 8:45 p.m. boston police department has just tweeted that the suspect is in in fact in custody. >> this time yesterday 19-year-old dzhokhar tsarnaev was on the run. a manhunt that brought the city of boston and the neighboring suburbs to a virtual halt. this morning the most wanted man in america is under police guard and we're told charges could be filed against him literally at any time. after a dramatic arrest, he was taken to a hospital in serious condition. he was first wounded on thursday night in the shootout with police that killed his brother.
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last night he may have been struck once again in a hail of police gunfire. this image from cbs news shows the bloody teen climbing out of a boat parked in a watertown backyard where he had likely been hiding for hours. the boat's owner said he saw smeared blood and pulled back a tarp to find tsarnaev laying there. he was week from blood loss but still refused to surrender until the last volley of gunfire. right now a heavy police
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presence inside boston's medical center where tsarnaev is recovering after being seriously injured. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is right outside of the hospital. elizabeth, federal prosecutors are inside. could the suspect actually be charged today? >> you know what, wolf? my colleague pamela brown has been talking to a justice department official who says yes. the charges could come down while tsarnaev is still in the hospital. he is in federal custody and we know that we are told that he's going to be charged with federal crimes including terrorism. now, what we don't know is much about his condition. he's in serious condition but they haven't given us anymore details than that and i don't think they're going to. wolf? >> how does the hospital where you are specifically handle security for someone like this? >> big urban hospitals like this one are very accustomed to
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taking care of suspects and inmates so they know how to do this. i was talking to a doctor who does this on a regular basis and he says that -- a doctor some place else. not here. he guesses or thinks they'll handcuff him to the bed. handcuffed to the bed and likely two security, two police officers by his side as well as police officers outside the door. again, they are accustomed to doing this. one of the things they may be looking at in his case is to make sure he doesn't kill himself because he's obviously much more valuable alive than dead. >> inside the hospital where you are, elizabeth, behind you in that building, doctors and nurses have to take care of this man believed and suspected to have committed these terrible acts killing these people and injuring so many others. how do they handle that responsibility? >> i've been talking to doctors about that. they say, look, we're human.
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it's tough when we know what someone has done and it affects us but we take a deep breath and we work on the patients. you do the job you have to do. you have the feelings before you work on the patient and after. a doctor did say something interesting to me. as physicians we try to connect to our patients but not in this case. there's no arms around him. there's no hugs. there's no how's your family. there's none of that. >> elizabeth cohan watching what's going on. we'll check back with you. it's a family's worst nightmare. after watching what was going on in boston a terrorist attack unfolding a few days earlier, finding out your own flesh and blood may have been responsible. >> he put a shame on the family,
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on the entire family and the entire chechen ethnicity. >> the uncle called the brothers losers. his word. their aunt suggests they were innocent victims of a conspiracy. >> my first call to fbi they could not have done this. where are evidence? all you show us is footage. two guys are walking. i find it strange that tamerlan is walking in front. dzhokhar is in the back. why wouldn't they come together? together as brothers as i used to know them. >> are you suspicious they really did do this? >> i'm suspicious it was staged. >> the brother's father lives in the russian region of dagestan echoed this denial and paranoia. he told russian media that his son who was on the run at the time was a true angel.
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his words. a true angel. he was framed. our nick paton walsh found the father to ask a few more questions. this is the cnn exclusive. the first time he has spoken since his younger son was captu captured. >> cnn. i'm with cnn. i'm so sorry, sir. we wanted to hear your story. that was all. it's a very difficult time for you. we want to give you a chance to tell people how you feel about this. we just didn't really have a chance to properly hear all you have to say about the terrible circumstances you're in. your sons didn't do this? are you going to america? when will you leave?
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you will forgive me, sir. i know it's a difficult time for you. i'm just trying to do my job. i understand. when is the last time you spoke to them? have you been in touch with special services here? what do they have to say to you? okay. i understand. >> we're going to go to dagestan live and talk to nick paton walsh later. he caught up with the father of these two suspects. also i'll speak live within the next few minutes the police chief of watertown here outside of boston just hours after a nightmare unfolded in his town's backyard. you're going to hear specifically how it all went down. this is cnn's special live coverage from boston. a simple question:went out e how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone
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the chaotic search for the boston bombing suspect ended in watertown. watertown's police department played a huge role in the manhunt. with us now is the watertown police chief, edward devoe. you have never experienced anything like this before? >> absolutely not. when did you realize this was going down and you had the second suspect? >> it was late in the day. we had a report that we got from our citizens. we asked them to keep vigilant. >> i guy called to say that there's blood on my boat and it looks like a guy is in there.
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>> i want to talk about the night before. at that point we had a couple thousand police officers on scene. incredible support from the state and from the region so we had tactical people to close the scene down and secure it. we took our time to make sure that everyone was safe in the neighborhood. eventually we had to use some flash bangs to render the subject -- >> tell us what a flash bang is. >> it's a large compression that would stun someone for a short period of time and then we began negotiations slowly over a 15 to 20-minute period. we were able to get him to stand up and show us that he didn't have a device on him. >> he's lying in this boat. he's been there for several hours. he's wounded clearly, right? he's bleeding. he's obviously weak. you come over there and what do you say to him? you have a blow horn and say come out with your hands up? >> we have a negotiator who was actually on the second floor of
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the house looking down at the boat in the backyard. >> you could see them? >> we couldn't see him. there was a plastic top over him. we had state police helicopter that could tell us when there was movement in the boat by the heat sensor. we would tell he was alive and moving and began negotiations that way and over a long period of time we were able to get him to surrender without anybody hurt or injured. >> he didn't use anymore gunfire. >> there was early gunfire in the area. he exchanged gunfire with some of the officers and then a we secured the scene and then there was no more gunfire after that. >> what kind of weapon did he have? >> we're not sure. that crime scene is still live down there. the fbi crime scene is in charge of that. >> did he have an explosive vest on his body like his older brother did the night before?
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>> that was our major concern and why nobody wanted to go near him until he understood we need him to lift his shirt up to see his chest and we felt comfortable to send people in. >> did he do that? >> after 25 to 30 minutes he did that. >> he had no explosives in the boat as far as you know? >> on his person. we haven't got into that boat. it's a decent size boat. we don't know what's in there. >> who did the negotiations and talking with him? >> that would have been the fbi task force. >> he raised up his shirt. he showed he wasn't wearing an explosive device and then what happened? >> well, at that point once we saw that, we felt comfortable enough to send some officer with tactical equipment to go in and grab him and pull him away from the boat so he wouldn't have anything. he needed first aid so he was transported by ambulance into a boston hospital. >> and what was the nature of his injuries? i believe the injuries were sustained the night before the
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exchange that you had with him and his older brother. >> we knew he was -- >> old hold on one second. a lot of activity behind us. i want to make sure viewers can hear you. the exchange the night before. walk us through that. >> it's a very hectic night where there was so much heroics and a lot of different police departments but i just want to give credit to men and women of the watertown police department. what had happened was there was an assassination of an m.i.t. police officer. >> you believe by these two brothers? >> yes. why did they want to kill this police officer? >> that's still under investigation. he was responding to just a loud disturbance call and that happened. >> was it on the campus of m.i.t. or was it at the convenience store? >> i believe it was on campus. and then they fled. they did a carjacking and somehow for some reason they ended up coming to watertown and
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that's where our officers engaged the two of them. >> what happened? pick up the story there. they are in a hijacked car. they had hijacked the car. they took the driver and then they let the driver go after the driver supposedly went to an atm and gave them money, is that right? >> right. there was some money withdrawn from his atm and so what happened with watertown one of the first police officers, we are getting information based on pinging the cell phone that he's in watertown. we kind of know what streets he's on. >> so tsarnaev was using his own personal cell phone? >> no. this is the victim's cell phone. >> so they let the victim go. they bragged to the victim that they were the bombers of the marathon, is that right? >> that's my understanding. they said we did the boston marathon bombing and killed a police officer. >> did they explain why they let the driver go, the man they had hijacked? >> no. >> thank god they did.
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>> lucky for him and for us that his cell phone remained in that vehicle so we were able to get updates. so now it's 12:30 in morning down a residential street in watertown. everybody is sleeping. sleepy neighborhood. and our officer sees two vehicles. two brothers are in two different cars including the car that was hijacked. he calls and notifies our station. we do procedure procedure. do not engage the car and get you backup and before the backup can get there, the two brothers jump out of the car and unload on our police officer. they both came out shooting guns. handguns and there was a long arm in the car. we're not sure. we're still piecing that together. he's under direct fire. very close by. he has to jam it in reverse and try to get himself a little distance. >> the younger brother? >> no. the police officer. so the two brothers are shooting at my first police officer that's responded and now within seconds i have two or three
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other police officers that pull up. we had just finished shift so two off-duty officers on their way home heard the call. i have six police officers in this very tight area engaged in gunfight. we estimate there was over 200 shots fired over a five to ten-minute period. >> these two brothers had a lot of weapons? >> yes. >> they were well armed. and they had pipe bombs, too? >> we had pipe bombs and explosives. during the exchange something got thrown at my police officers and we now find out it's exact bomb that blew up at the marathon in monday? >> pressure cooker? >> we find the pressure cooker embedded in the car down the street. there's a major explosion during this gunfight of my -- six of my officers that i'm extremely proud of. heroic. my heart is out to m.i.t. officer and his family but how
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the watertown police aren't attending a funeral of our own based on what happened on that street over that period of time is just talent, guts and glory that my officers did. >> luck too that none of your officers were killed. >> right. so there was that major explosive. two other grenades that came at our officers. >> were they hand grenades? >> they were lighting something and throwing them and they were exploding them. we called them hand grenades but they are very rough devices. two other ones didn't explode but our officers nearby could have exploded at in he other time and now so that's what my officers have done. at the same time the whole greater boston area is rushing to watertown. they're on the radio saying watertown is in deep trouble. shots fired. >> this is shortly after midnight. >> yes. so everybody is coming and they were able to come to us but the gunfight was over by the time people got there except for a couple police officers from the transit. >> walk us through what happened. the older brother, he's wounded,
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right? he's thrown out of the car and there are reports that the younger brother drove away and drove over his brother, is that right? >> well, eventually, yes. that's exactly what happened. what happened was at some point the first brother who died at the scene, he all of a sudden comes out from undercover and starts walking down the street shooting at our police officers trying to get closer. my closest police officer is five to ten feet away and they're exchanging gunfire between them and he runs out of ammunition. the bad guy. one of my police officers comes off the side and tackles him in the street and we're trying to get him handcuffed. there are two or three police officers handcuffing him in the street. >> the older brother? >> the older brother. at the same time at the last minute they have tunnel vision. very, very stressful situation. look out. here comes the black suv, the carjacked car, directly at them.
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they dive out of the way and he runs out of his brother and drags him a short distance down the street. >> in effect killing his brother? >> yes. that's what we think. >> the 19 year old is then driving this car and he escapes? >> exactly. >> you pursue. at the same time one of the transit officers that came behind our officers, we realize he's been shot and hit in the gro groin and has serious bleeding going on. one of my police officers who is an emt rendered him aid and his partner from the transit authority and they deserve all kinds of credit for saving that gentleman's life. our prayers are still with him and the family because he's in a tough way. he lost a lotted blood at the scene but we hope he can make a recovery. >> how did the younger one escape? >> he drove off. there's still gunfire. he got down two or three streets. we were in pursuit of him along with other officers from surrounding communities that are coming in and he dumps the car and runs into the darkness of
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the streets. >> that's it? >> then we lost contact with him. >> he's in watertown some place. he's running. you have no idea if he's armed, if he has explosives, but he's gone. >> we're assuming he has explosives and that he has weapons. >> this is now 1:00 in the morning? >> right. just before 1:00. >> that's when you begin this massive manhunt? >> right. >> you take the older brother to the hospital. he's pronounced dead at the hospital. >> right. >> what other types of weapons and explosives, hand grenades, pipe bombs, what else did you find? >> handguns there. long armed rifle. three bombs that exploded is my understanding there's two that weren't detonated and then the car that he bailed out of i know there was at least one other explosive device in that car that they didn't use. there was at least six bombs they had if you will. >> we fast forward now to almost 8:00 last night.
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you find him in the boat. he's alive. he's seriously injured, right? after a 20-minute negotiation with the fbi he gives himself up. >> right. >> they arrest him. they don't read him his miranda rights. explain. >> i'm not great on this. my understanding with the fbi and the federal authorities is that it's a terrorist act that they don't get certain rights that the rest of us would be afforded. they wanted to make sure that if we did speak with him that he wouldn't be given his miranda rights and something else kicked in. he was just -- >> you were told this in advance. if you found the guy, your officers are not going to read him his miranda rights. >> this never played out. there was no interviewing at the scene. he needed aid. >> he was in no position to talk. >> exactly. >> he was a very weak -- did he mumble anything? did he say anything? did he give any political statements? >> my understanding is he didn't have anything to say. i don't know for sure.
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>> what about during the 20-minute negotiation with the fbi when they were working out his surrender? did he make any statements that could be useful? >> no. i'm not aware of any statements. i think it was more he was finally started to do what we were directing him to do to stand up and lift his shirt up and things like that and that took a long time. there is very little conversation as far as i understand. >> do you believe there are any other suspects out there at large, any collaborators, co-conspirators, anyone we should be concerned about? based on everything you know? >> from what i know right now, these two acted together and alone. i think it's an eye opening experience to me, to our police department, to our community and to the united states and the world that we're in a different state here. i think we have to be ever vigilant and we're learning as we go along but as far as this little cell or this little group, i think we got our eye. >> you're not searching for
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anyone else. i ask if citizens of watertown and boston, can they rest easily knowing this operation has been as ended and there are no other suspects at large. >> we got our two guys. >> that's it. you must be relieved. >> relieved. yes. very proud of the law enforcement community. as i said, 30 years on this job. i couldn't have been more proud last night when i drove home to be part of such a profession. >> i just want to wrap up a couple loose ends before i let you go. you have been very generous with your time, police chief. during the apprehension, did anymore explosives go off as far as you know? >> at the boat? no. >> no more gunfire at the boat. >> no. >> there was gunfire early on but there was no -- we don't know what's in that boat yet. there may be explosives. >> we heard reporters on the scene heard a volley of gun shots going off, maybe two dozen
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or so. who was firing those gun shots? >> it was back and forth. >> was he firing? >> my understanding, yes. he was firing. >> from the boat? >> right. through the plastic they saw him poking through the plastic if you will of the boat and then gunfire erupted. >> you say they had sophisticated vision equipment from a helicopter to see through the boat cover if you will to see if there was movement underneath? >> we knew there was a body in that boat through the state police helicopter. it's heat seeking. he has a higher body temperature than the boat would. we could tell. every time he moved we could see that. >> as you see from that heat seeking -- that's sophisticated. you don't have that in the watertown police department. that's federal assistance that you're getting there. sophisticated level. >> talk about assets bringing in black hawk helicopters and everything else. i got a couple bicycles. >> you have never seen anything like that. >> amazing from the president to the governor they said we'll
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give you everything you need and they gave us everything we needed. >> to be precise, the nature of the two brothers, the guns that they had, do you know -- not necessarily specifically what kind but in generic terms what were those guns? >> i haven't seen those guns yet. there's so much going on in the last 24, 36 hours that i haven't seen all of the evidence. i know we have three cruisers that will never drive again that were shot up. there's a lot of damage. i haven't seen everything. >> here's what jumps out at me. i'll let you go. it's been an intriguing question. they had a lot of explosives. they had guns. they had some pretty sophisticated equipment. two guys who didn't have any money. where were they getting the money to build a pressure cooker bomb, to go ahead and buy rifles you're saying. to get hand grenades if you will. this is the kind of stuff that isn't cheap. >> we would have to figure that out. there's a lot more work to do as
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we said at the press conference last night. we have to find out more about this. we will as the days go on. there's a lot of hard work that's already gone into it. i think it moved quickly. and it is great. before we wrap up, i just want to say the support that i've gotten at the watertown police department, boston police department and all of law enforcement from local across the country, across the world. we have so many people reaching out to us. the streets of watertown were lined with people as we left the scene. it was just so moving to see support we have and i want to thank the people the watertown, greater boston area and across the country of support we've gotten. >> police chief, thanks for your excellent work. thanks for what you did. we appreciate it not only here in the boston area but nationally indeed around the world people are watching all over the world right now. we really appreciate what you've done. >> thank you very much. i really appreciate it. >> thanks for bringing this to an end. edward deveau, thank the men and
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women that work for you as well. >> i will. one of the suspects was actually on the fbi's radar just last year and the year before but this wasn't the only red flag out there. we're going to discuss what happened as our special live coverage from boston continues.
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good morning. the boston bombing suspect's uncle is speaking out. he told our shannon travis in an exclusive interview more about
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tamerlan and dzhokhar tsarnaev. shannon is driving us from washington. what did the uncle have to say today? >> wolf, his name is ruslan tsarni. today the uncle is speaking a different tune. i started the interview asking what's your reaction to the capture of your younger nephew. take a listen. >> i'm relieved. i'm relieved that he's alive and now there's a chance to find out who was behind it. who is the mentor and how possibly he could get involved and do this harm to innocent people. second of all, i stress that
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there's a chance for dzhokhar to speak forgiveness. >> when the older brother was a young child, the uncle actually had him in his care for a while and i asked the uncle about how he interacted and kept up with the older son for over the years. the uncle said in 2009 he had a conversation with the older brother, the older boy, and that he noticed a change in his voice where he was becoming more extreme in terms of his religious views. i asked him what he attributed that to. take a listen at how he described that. >> i called one of the gentleman living in the area private to their family. i said, listen, do you know what is going on with that family? with my brother's family? i heard that talking from
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tamerlan. where that might be coming from? he says, oh, yeah. there is such a thing. there's a person with some new convert into islam of armenian descent. i have no intention to say anything about armenian. it's the neighboring region with north caucuses. i said this person took his brain and brainwashed him completely. tamerlan is off now. there's no obedience and respect to his own father. >> someone brainwashed tamerlan's brain. that's what the uncle said that he got once he actually inquired about these changes in his oldest nephew. the uncle also told me that he believes that demons will basically take what he described as a once good kid and take them over. one last thing, there was a powerful moment, wolf, where the uncle actually named the names of the victims in the boston
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bombings and also the police officer. take a listen at that. >> lingzi lu, student, young officer just started his career just working try to provide to his family. i say if i were among them, i was among them. >> two last key points. i asked the uncle flat out what would be his message to dzhokhar right now. he says he wants dzhokhar to know to fully cooperate with the police and tell everything as he put it so that he can begin to seek forgiveness and i also asked, wolf, if dzhokhar reaches out to him, seeking help and guidance for what he's about to go through, would he be inclined to help. the uncle said yes. yes, he would be inclined to help not legally necessarily
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but, yes, he would be in a position to help him seek forgiveness from the victims. wolf? >> shannon travis, good work over there in washington. thanks very much for that report. now that the man hunt and the mayhem have ended, the investigation into the methods and the motive behind the bomb attack is intensifying. we have the former fbi assistant director and cnn analyst. julia is boston globe columnist and former homeland security adviser to state and federal governments. the fact that the second suspect was captured and not killed has to be an advantage for the investigators, tom. how important is this potentially they can question this individual and get specific information? >> wolf, i think it's extremely important and as we have seen in some of the previous cases, the fbi has been very successful even after giving the miranda
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warnings to these subjects to get them to talk about what they've done to get them to cooperate. we have seen this with the attack on the new york subway system and we've seen this with umar farouk abdulmutallab where he was read his rights by the fbi. he talked. he cooperated. he needed medical attention because he burned his legs in attempting to light the device. got the medical treatment. went back after being treated and was reread his rights and proceed to talk for another -- i think the total interviews lasted almost 14 hours the first day and he continued to cooperate after that. often especially in the case of terrorists, they want it known why they did it. it's part of the reason for doing it isn't just to terrorize and to kill people but to get their message out there and an opportunity to continue the process. secondly, he hasn't demonstrated suicidal tendencies.
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they didn't die at the time of the bombing at the marathon and the activities that took place last night, he surrendered. he was eventually talked into surrendering by the fbi negotiators. here's someone that has some appearance of wanting to save himself. he'll be facing the death penalty right now. that's an added incentive if he still wants to come out of this alive that he fully cooperate and help the fbi. the other issue that's come up about miranda rights is ridiculous because there is the public safety clause. when someone is arrested like this, umar farouk abdulmutallab we know there were no additional explosives in detroit but with these guys we didn't know if they placed additional devices, boo booby traps or have materials in the boston area. they want to talk to him about that mainly as a safety issue. to be frank, they don't need his confession to prosecute and convict him. there will be more evidence in
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this case than you have in almost every other case that you have because they're on video. you have the forensics. you have the murders of police. there is no need for miranda warning in this case. >> if they were to read the miranda rights and say you have the right to remain silent, right to attorney, let's say he gets a public defender or another attorney volunteers to help him, you're a graduate of harvard law school. you know the first thing any lawyer will say to his or her client shut up. don't say anything else. >> we'll see. this is going to unfold slowly now. it's important for people to remember the big statement last night was commitment by the administration they'll go through normal criminal justice process. we have criminal statutes. >> instead of declaring him enemy combatant. >> i personally think it's absurd to be honest. he's here. he is u.s. citizenship and all of the evidence is necessary and
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it's an important statement especially after what the city went through to say, yep, now you're just a normal criminal and we're going to put you through the process. this national security exception i agree with tom, we do not know a lot of facts about the motivation and whether they had more plans for people. a lot of things coming out in the last 24, 48 hours and i was reminded yesterday about a book called columbine by an author who just wrote a piece for slay.com about how much we think we know today about motivations will change over time and that we actually may never have the answer why exactly did they do it? we may have a lot of explanations but may never know what takes someone to that moment. >> we would know if he fully cooperates and he tells all, this 19 year old. and says this is exactly how this unfolded. my brother did this. i did this.
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we were inspired, not inspired, whatever. >> that's the ideology. what brings someone to that moment if it's the older brother who had influence over the younger brother, there's going to be some speculation and a lot of uncertainty and we'll see sort of how the case unfolds. we may not have all of the answers immediately about how did we get to this moment? >> don't go too far away. we have a lot of other questions to ask. thanks to both of you. for now, up next, our poppy harlow. she spoke with some of the neighbors that live nearby the home where the suspect was finally captured. stay with us. our special coverage continues right here on cnn. if you think running a restaurant is hard, try running four. fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores.
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>> the intense manhunt for the 19 year old tsarnaev dzhokhar
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ended in the backyard in watertown, massachusetts. he was discovered in a parked boat right behind a house about a mile or so away from where his older brother died hours earlier in a shootout with police. poppy harlow is just down the block from the home where the younger tsarnaev was captured. poppy, how are neighbors reacting to all of this drama? >> reporter: hi there, wolf. we hear more and more of the first accounts which are critical in understanding what this night was like for people that call this neighborhood home and they're coming out of their houses and gathering and talking to neighbors and i've talked to a number of people this morning. one of the most stunning stories i've heard comes from a man named bob goodman. not only was he literally feet from the second bomb at the marathon on monday, he lives just three homes away from 67 franklin street and that's exactly where they arrested suspect number 2 last night.
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for him he told me and this is a quote, it's been an absolutely horrific week. he said he was just sort of starting to get over the shock of what he had experienced on monday and then this happened. listen to our conversation. >> when we were on lockdown, which started yesterday in the morning, we were alternating between putting the blinds up and blinds down thinking if they're up we can see what's going on, if we're down, we don't have to see. it was that kind of vigilance and really anxiety and terror that we felt all day long. i did glimpse at one point out the back of my kitchen window and saw the national guard and the fbi inspecting the backyard. i have a shed. >> reporter: did they come into your house? >> they came into the house, yeah. so there was that kind of thing going on in the neighborhood all day long. >> reporter: the neighbors that live at 67 franklin, the house where suspect number 2 was, do
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you know them? >> i know them not extremely well but i certainly know them as neighbors. i see them often. the white boat is sort of part of our neighborhood. the white tarped boat i should say because it's parked there for three seasons out of the year. >> reporter: have you been able to talk to that family to see how they're doing? >> i have not. i have not been able. i have spoken to the family who lives next to them. and they are doing fine. >> reporter: has the family been allowed back in the house at 67 franklin? >> i don't know. i don't know. i'm sure they were evacuated. >> reporter: thank goodness you're safe. thank goodness this neighborhood is safe. what harrowing experience to be so close to the bombs, one of the bombs at the marathon and then here. no one should go through it. thank you for joining us. glad you're going to go to the red sox game. try to enjoy it. >> it will be good healing. >> reporter: thank you. when you talk about that healing process, this neighborhood and this city are nowhere near back
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to normal. he really emphasized that to me saying we still have so much healing to do all of the victims, 58 of them still in the hospital. a long way to go. four way to go. four people who died in this terrorist attack. our viewers can see the police behind me, but they are blocking media off from going anywhere near the home because fbi agents, i'm told, have been in and around that home searching the premise, scouring it for any evidence they can get before they let anyone close there, wolf. >> which is exactly what they need to do. want to make sure they leave no stones unturned. good work, thank you. federal terrorism charges could be filed soon against the bombing suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev. even before he's actually out of the hospital. that according to a u.s. justice department official. already the case is raising some pretty complex legal questions. douglas jones is a former u.s.
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attorney and who prosecuted the olympiapark bomber. he's joining us now from birmingham, alabama. thanks for coming in. let's start with the fact the government did not read this suspect his miranda rights, invoking the public safety exception. what do you think about that. explain what that means. >> simply wolf, i agree with what was said a few minutes ago. it's not a particular argument. what they needed to find out is if there are other explosives. we have seen over the last 24 hours that the use of other explosives thrown at law enforcement officers, they need to find out if there are other things undetonated still out there. as a practical matter for the trial, it won't matter. miranda warnings only apply to confessions, statements made after someone has been arrested. if you exclude that in this case, there's going to be ample evidence to get a conviction. the fact they didn't read the
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miranda warning, if they get a statement is not going to affect this case whatsoever. >> the 19-year-old suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev is a naturalized american citizen. got his citizenship last year on september 11th. two prominent senators john mccain and lindsey graham say he should be treated as an enemy combatant. he could be questioned without a lawyer. even though he was a u.s. citizen arrested on u.s. soil. what do you think about that? >> i think that's just a misunderstanding of the law. if you look back over the history over the last 20 years particularly, our justice system in the united states has worked very well in similar cases. look what happened in oklahoma city with timothy mcveigh who was not only convicted but suffered the death penalty. look what happened with eric rudolph with olympiapac park.
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the fbi can put this case together and be prosecuted in the courts of the united states and let justice follow that way. i don't think this is any way should be relegated -- not relegated, but elevated to something on enemy combatant status. this is a crime against the people of the united states. it can be handled that way. i have every confidence in the justice department and state authorities in massachusetts to do that. >> douglas jones, thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> as boston tries to return to normal, what role will sports play? the sox and bruins are about to play here today. fans are honoring the city in a very special way. back at home would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. i'm really glad that girl stayed at home. vo: expedia helps 30 million travelers a month find what they're looking for. one traveler at a time. expedia. find yours.
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we're back now with our live coverage here in boston. a city that's been on edge since the deadly bombings on monday. but now that the lockdown is over, the second suspect is under arrest, folks can get back on track. like cheering on their beloved red sox that take on the royals a little over an hour from now. their game got cancelled yesterday because of the intense man. hundredth for the second suspect in the bombings. the game could be delayed again, though, if it's rain this time that has i way. it's kpped to pour later in the day, but let's hope it doesn't. also in an hour the bruins take on a tough pittsburgh penguins.
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on wednesday they honored the victims of the bombings by wearing custom-made stickers on their helmets. as we have seen sports can be a way for communities to come together and heal after a tragic event. cnn sports andy shultz is joining us from atlanta. talk a little bit more about boston's road back to normalcy. what do you see? what are you hearing? >> we saw how strong the healing power of sports can be after 9/11. we're seeing the same kind. of thing with the red sox. teams all over major league baseball not only displayed boston strong signs, but they played "sweet caroline." they have given fans plenty to cheer about. they won six straight and lead the al east division. in boston the bruins are the only team to play a home game since the bombings and we saw a packed house.
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together singing a very e emotional national anthem. now it's the celtics turn to lift the city. they may be underdogs in their playoff opener, but this week's events have given them extra motivation to get the win. >> you go through tragedy as a city and you look for something to cling on. i believe the city of boston lives and dies with our sports teams. they are going to be watching closely. there's a sense of pride about this city and about this team. to go out there and play well and do the best for the city in the wake of the tragedy. >> and with all three teams in action today, it's a busy sports day for bostonians. a much-needed distraction from the events of this week. >> certainly is. thanks very much. . joining us now on the phone is steve silva, he's at fenway park
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where the red sox are getting ready to play in the next hour. you're a native of massachusetts. what does today moon for you as this city tries to get back to normal and the red sox take to the field against the royals? >> i think it's just a time for us to get together as a community. we can get a large number here at fenway park. it's going to be an emotionally charged day. the fans just started rolling in and everyone is hugging each other. there's going to be special shirts and a special pregame ceremony. it's a time for us to say let's give thanks to the first responders and everyone in law enforcement who brought this story to a close last night. let's try to have a diversion with the serious issues. our thoughts are with the
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victims. we're going to try to use sports as that great rally point. boston is a sports city. today is going to be a classic boston day. >> we're get iting word, steve, that the red sox are going to be wearing a special home white jersey with the word boston on it. it will later be signed and auctioned off with proceeds going to the one fund boston campaign that helps people affected by the tragic events at the boston marathon. this is an unusual development, this special jersey. have you seen it before? >> i don't know if we saw it after 9/11 or anything like that, but they have the logo and that's going to be the jersey that they are going to wear today. it's happening. >> steve silva, thanks very much. enjoy the game over there at
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fenway. i know a lot of other people will as well. we'll take a quick break and continue our special coverage right after this. just past the top of the hour. i'm wolf blitzer live here in boston. we're continuing our special coverage of the capture of surviving suspect in the boston marathon bombings. it was a harrowing ordeal that began with the bombing attack and end ed in a shootout last night. as the city paralyzed by this turns to normal, we're learned this 19-year-old accused terrorist may soon be charged even while he's still in the hospital. i just sat down with the
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watertown police chief and in just a few minutes, you're going to hear an incredible play-by-play of exactly what happened and in the moments leading up to the capture. the father of these brother who still loves in dagestan told russian media his son who was on the run at the time was, in his words, a true angel and was framed. we were able to find the father, speaking to him for the first time since the younger son was captured. >> cnn? i'm so sorry. we just wanted to hear your story. we just want to give you the chance to tell people how you feel about this. we just we have a chance to properly hear all you have to say about the terrible circumstances you're in.
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sir, your son s didn't do this? are you going to america? you will forgive me, sir. it's a difficult time, i'm just trying to do my job. when was the last time you spoke to them? have you been in touch with the special services here? what did they have to say to you? okay, i understand. >> just to recap some of what the father said. he told nate he still believes his sons are innocent and the last time he spoke with them was sunday. he also says he plans to head here to the united states from dagestan in russia. right now a heavy police presence inside boston's medical
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center where dzhokhar tsarnaev is recovering after being seriously injured. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is outside the hospital. she's joining us now. the federal prosecutors there inside. could the suspect even though he's recuperating from serious injuries, could he actually be charged today? >> reporter: it is possible he could be charged while still in the hospital. that's according to a justice department official whose cnn panel talked to. they have been inside the hospital, they have been thinking about what to charge him with and they could come while he's in the hospital. we don't know how long he's going to be in the hospital. he's in serious condition. but that really doesn't tell us very much. if he has had surgeries, which one would guess he would as he's been involved in these gunfights, it's going to take awhile for him to recover, have those surgeries and recover from them. now we are expecting to hear
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later on what his condition is, but we're really expecting just to hear serious or stable or whatever. we're not expecting any details on how he's doing. wolf? >> what about security over at the hospital? it it must be intense right now. give us a little sense. >> reporter: yes, you can definitely see there's a heavy police presence here. we're not allowed to go in and out of the hospital. i was speaking to a doctor who is very familiar with security procedures. he works in a different city. he says he thinks the suspect is likely handcuffed to the bed and that there are two guards at his side. sometimes when you're not so worried about a suspect, you might not do the handcuffs and might just put guards outside. but he thinks handcuffed to the bed, two guards by the bed, and two outside the door. big city hospitals are very much accustomed to doing this. they have suspected and inmates in their hospital all the time.
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>> elizabeth, the man that they are treating, these doctors and nurses suspected of having killed an 8-year-old little boy at the end of the marathon, a 23-year-old young woman from china, a 28-year-old woman who was standing there at the end of the marathon. now a 26-year-old police officer from m.i.t. how difficult is it for these medical professionals to give excellent care to someone accused of these heinous crimes? >> reporter: you know, wolf, i think that doctors and nurses are human beings and i think it's difficult, but they have to do their jobs. i know that they do well them. i was speaking with some doctors about this. they said, look, you know, we feel anger. we know who these people are. sometimes they have to treat murders and people who killed their children or their spouses. we feel it it, but we take a deep breath and we do our jobs and we go in and do what we have
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to do. this hospital gives excellent care. it's a level one trauma center. i know they will give care up to the standard of what they usually give. the doctors and nurses who i talked to said you feel it it before you go in and treat the patient. when you treat the patient, they are like any other patient. then you feel afterwards the anger that anybody would feel towards someone like this. >> elizabeth cohen at the medical center here in boston, thanks for that report. after the hunt was over last night, boston police sent out one tweet. ul quote now, the hunt is over, the search is done, the terror is over and justice has won. subpoena suspect in custody. the chief sat down with me a little while ago for an exclusive interview. he gave me an account of how this 19-year-old suspect was captured. >> it was late in the day.
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we had a report that we got from our citizens. we asked them to keep vigilant. we got the call and it it sounded like really good information. >> the person called and said there's a guy in this boat in my backyard. there looks like there's blood there. pick up the story there. >> and i do want to talk about what happened the night before. >> we'll get to that in a second. >> at that point, we had a couple thousand police officers on scene. the turnout was just incredible. the support that e we got from the state and from the region, so we had the tactical people to be able to close that scene down and secure it. we did take our time to make sure that everybody was safe in the neighborhood. eventually we had to use some flash-bangs to rend r the subject -- >> tell everybody what a flash-bang is. >> it's a loud compression that would stun somebody for a short period of time. we began negotiations over a
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15-minute period. we were able to get him to stand up and show us he didn't have a device on him. >> he's lying in this boat. he's wounded clearly. he's bleeding. he's obviously weak. you come over there and what do you say to him? you have a bull horn and start saying come out with your hands up? >> we have a negotiator on the second floor of the house looking down at the boat. there was a plastic tarp over him. we had the state police helicopter that could tell us when there was movement in the boat by the heat sensor. we could tell he was alive and moving and we began negotiations that way. over a long period of time, we were able to finally get him to surrender without anybody hurt. >> you didn't use anymore gunfire in the course? >> there was early gunfire when we first got in the area. he exchanged gunfire. >> what kind of weapon did he
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have? >> we're not sure. the crime scene is still live. the fbi crime scene search is there now. we done know what's in that boat. there could be devices. >> the fbi is in charge of that? >> of the scene there, yes. >> did he have an explosive vest on his body like his older brother did? >> that was our major concern and that's why nobody. ed to go near him until he understand we needed him to lift his shirt up. we felt comfortable to send some people in to take him into custody. >> did he do that? >> eventually over a long period of time. >> so no explosives with him on the boat? >> not on his person. >> who did the talking? >> that would have been the fbi task force. >> he raised up his shirt, showed he wasn't wearing an explosive device. then what happened? >> at that point, we felt
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comfortable enough to send some officers with tactical equipment to go in and grab him and pull him away from the boat. then he needed first aid. so he was transported by ambulance into a boston hospital. >> and what was the nature of his injuries? i believe the injuries were sustained the night before the, change that you had with his older brother. hold on one second. there's a lot of activity moving behind us. we're used to this now. i want to make sure our viewers can hear you. walk us through the exchange. >> it's a very hectic night where there was so much heroics in a lot of different police departments. but i want to give credit to the men and women of the watertown police department. what happened was there was an assassination of an msm i.t. police officer. >> and you believed by these two brothers. >> yes.
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>> why did they want to kill this police officer? >> that's still under investigation. he was responding to a disturbance and next that happens. >> was it on the campus or this convenience store? >> i believe it was on campus. then they fled. they did a carjacking and somehow for some reason they ended upcoming to watertown. that's where our officer engaged the two of them. >> they were in a hijacked car. they took the driver and then let the driver go after the driver supposedly went to an atm and gave them some money? >> right. there was money withdrawn from his atm. what happened in watertown, we are getting information based on pinging the cell phone that he's in watertown. so we know what streets he's on. >> so tsarnaev was using his own phone? >> this is the victim's cell
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phone. >> in other words they let the victim go. they bragged to the victim they were the bombers of the marathon. >> we did the boston marathon bombing and killed a police officer. >> did they explain why they let the driver go? >> no. >> thank god they did. >> lucky for him and lucky for us his cell phone remained in that vehicle so we were able to get updates. now it's about 12:30 in the morning in watertown. everybody is sleeping. and our officer sees two vehicles. the two brothers are in two different cars. he calls and notifies our station. we do all the proper procedure, do not engage the car, let's get some more backup. before the backup could get there the two cars stop and jump out of the car and unload on our police officer. they both came out shooting guns. handguns and there was a long arm in the car.
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we're not exactly sure. we're still piecing that together. he's under direct fire very close by. he has to jam it it in reverse and try to get himself some distance. the two brothers are shooting at my first police officers that responded. within seconds i have two or three other police officers that pull up. we had just finished shifts so two off duty officers heard the call. so i have six police officers in this very tight area engaged in gunfight. we estimate there was over 200 shots fired over a ten-minute period. >> these broths had a lot of we. >> they had pipe bombs and explosives. during the exchange, all of a sudden something got thrown at my police officers. we now find out it's the exact bomb that blew up at the marathon. >> like a pressure cooker?
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>> we find the pressure cooker embedded in the car down the street. there's a major explosion during this gunfight of my officers. six of my officers that i'm extremely proud of that heroic. my heart is out to the m.i.t. officer and his family, but how the watertown police aren't attending a funeral of our own based on what happened on that street is just talent, guts and glory. >> that was the watertown police chief edward devoe. i spoke with him just a little while ago here in boston. the surviving suspect has not, repeat not been read his miranda rights which means investigators have a small window to get information from him. while some people aren't happy about this, a few senators released a strongly worded statement. we'll have that for you and a lot more of the breaking news. cnn's special live coverage will continue.
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the boston bombing suspect's uncle also speaking out. he told shannon travis in an exclusive interview more about the two brothers. shannon is joining us now from washington. what did the uncle have to say? >> he had a lot to say. this is the same uncle from yesterday who essentially attributed his nephew's behavior to them being losers. they brought shame on the family. today i just got back not too long ago from maryland speaking with the uncle. his name is ruslan tsarni. i began my interview by asking him what's his reaction to his youngest nephew being captured? >> i'm relieved. i'm relieved that he's alive.
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first of all, that there's now a chance to find out who was behind all this. who were their mentors. and how possibly could he get involved and do this harm to innocent people. and second of all, i stress that there's a chance for dzhokhar to seek forgiveness. >> wolf, the uncle wasn't especially close to this family. he said he broke ties with them many 2009. he had the not seen his nephew since around 2006. hadn't spoken to them since 2009. but i also asked him what he felt was tamerlan, his oldest nephew, what he felt was responsible for some of the changes that he had seen in him over the years. he said he had a conversation with him in 2009 where he basically sensed that the older nephew was becoming a little bit
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more extreme in his religious views. the uncle attributed this to someone who was influencing him and used the word brainwashed. he said that this person was a new convert to islam. that this person was arkansas mean yan dissent. i pressed him for a name. he wouldn't tell me that but it was a family friend. >> thanks very much. federal terrorism charges could be filed soon against the bombing suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev even before he's out of the hospital. that according to a justice department official. already, though, the case is raising some complex legal issues. let's bring in our legal guys now. avery freedman is a law professor. he's joining us from tampa. richard herman is a criminal defense attorney, a law professor as well. he's joining us from las vegas. thanks very much for coming in. let's start with the fact that the government did not read the
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suspect his miranda rights invoking the public safety exception. avery, what do you think about that decision? >> i think it's an incorrect decision. i don't think there should be any delay in mirandizing. the job is to secure a convicti conviction. at the same time, intelligence personnel are going to be talking to this individual, talking to tsarnaev because there are issues unrelated to his personal issue criminality. and miranda has nothing to do with that, wolf. so we're seeing federal officials making the interview, trying to ask questions will have nothing to do withmy ran did. it's imperative because we don't want to jeopardize this prosecution in any way. i think it's imperative it be done now. >> richard, do you agree?
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>> well, i do think he should be mirandized, but we have heard interviews earlier today where the justice department says they don't care what he says. they can convict right now on this guy on the evidence against him. if it they don't care, read him his miranda rights. the reason there's an exception is when law enforcement feels there's reasonably a clear and present danger to themselves or to the public. they have a limited window where they can interrogate him by fbi and other justice department officia officials. . this guy is still in the hospital. i think he's probably half dead right now. i don't know if he's going to say anything. >> tsarnaev is a naturalized american citizen. 19 years old, he was naturalized last september 11th. two prominent senators, now a third actually including john mccain and lindsey graham, they have suggested that e he should be treated as an enemy combat t
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combatant. let me read from the statement just released. the suspect based upon his actions, clearly is a good candidate for enemy combatant sts. we are encouraged to have our team involved and working together intelligence about how these terrible acts were committed and the possible of future attacks. a decision to not read miranda rights to the suspect was sound and in our national security interests. but they go one step further, avery, and say he shouldn't be tried as a normal u.s. citizen but an enemy combatant. what do you say to senator mccain, senator graham, peter king of the house intelligence committee who all four of them have issued this statement? >> respectfully, wolf, this is an american citizen naturalized
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committing alleged crimes on american soil. there's no question but that this case belongs in an article three a federal district court. the federal courts in boston have an enormous experience in dealing with terrorism. i'm mystified at that kind of statement. this belongs in federal court. not at guantanamo. it just doesn't work. this is a federal terrorism case with death penalty specks. >> richard, what do you think? >> avery is right on here. this is not belong in a military guantanamo. the good people of the state of massachusetts deserve the right to have him try ied in federal district court. he will be charged on federal terrorism charges. he will be facing the death penalty and he will get the death penalty if e he survives the next few days. >> avery, richard, thanks as
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usual for joining us. up next i'll speak with the president of the boston city council. his story is amazing. you'll find out why a high heel, a high heel may have saved his life. this is cnn special coverage in boston. we had never used a contractor before and didn't know where to start. at angie's list, you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare written by people just like you. no company can pay to be on angie's list, so you can trust what you're reading. angie's list is like having thousands of close neighbors where i can go ask for personal recommendations.
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it's the bottom of the hour. i'm wolf blitzer live in boston. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. the terror is over after five days of tragedy, high anxiety, the city can finally rest. >> boston police department has just tweeted, suspect in custody. 8:45 p.m., boston police department has just tweeted that the suspect is in custody.
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>> this time yesterday the 19-year-old dzhokhar tsarnaev was on the run. a manhunt that brought the city of boston and surrounding suburbs to a virtual halt. this morning the most wanted man in america is under police guard and charges could be filed against him literally at any time even though he's in the hospital. we are also now just learning that the suspect was on the campus of the united states of massachusetts every single day after the bombing until the thursday night shootout with police that killed his brother. last night he may have been struck again in a hail of police gunfire. [ gunfire ] >> those gunshots you just heard were pr both the police and the
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suspect returning fire from inside the boat even though he was severely injured and bleeding. this image from cbs news shows the bloody 19-year-old climbing out of a boat parked in a watertown backyard where he had likely been hiding for hours. the bone's owner saw smeared blood and pulled back the tarp to found tsarnaev lying there. he refused to surrender million the last volumely of gunfire. a lot of police activity unfolding in the neighborhood where the younger tsarnaev was captured last night. poppy harlow has been speaking with residents about the ordeal over the past 24 hours. she's joining us now with more. this community i'm sure was shocked. they are trying to get back to a little bit of normality right now. >> absolutely. shocked, surreal episode
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unfolding literally outside of their living room windows here. we're about half a block away. straight behind me is 67 franklin street, that's where the suspect was apprehended in that boat in the backyard. earlier today as we get more and more of the eyewitness accounts, one of the most compelling was from stacey who lives five doors down from the house. and she talked about what it was like when authorities came up to her door. she answered the door literally to guns pulled in her face because they don't know who is going to answer the door with every home they went to to search. she explained to me all three searches that her house went through during that 24-hour manhunt. listen. >> the first time was a standard sweep. they came through with three to five officers with either automatic weapons or weapons drawn. i opened the back-door just to let them in so they don't have to kick it it down. they saw the door open and
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instinctively drew their weapons on us. i knew why they were doing it, but it was terrifying. they swept the backyard. the second too many they swept was a little more in-depth. they had the canine units. they swept more intricate our backyard and redid our basement again. we never lock our basement door so we weren't sure what was down there. at that point, they left us alone for a little while. then we got a door well ring. and they said are you expecting anybody? we're going, no, and especially not at 3:00 in the morning. >> wolf, when that shelter in place was lifted here yesterday around 6:00 p.m., an hour before they cornered the suspect, she came outside to talk to neighbors and said, but then she had to literally cover her ears with her hands and run back to the house when they heard the
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gunshots that drew griffin reported. in terms of normalcy, they are trying but we're not even close. you can't get anywhere near that home. that's because the fbi has been there constantly since they arrested tsarnaev and they are still searching, scouring the area for any little piece of evidence they can gather than they need to get anything they can that will give them leads as to motive why this happened. was there anyone else who helped? in terms of what people are talking about, they are relieved, but the victims, the four who died and the hundreds who were injured, 58 still in the hospital, still very much in their minds. >> poppy harlow reporting from watertown for us, thanks very much. let's get some more now on the unprecedented lockdown that paralyzed the entire city of boston and the neighboring
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suburbs. boston's city council president is joining us now. thank you for coming in. talk about what's going on in boston right now. but you have an amazing story. you were there at the boston marathon. you were with some friends. tell us what happened because god forbid you could have been in serious condition right now. >> there were a group of seven of us. we had come down boylston street to the finish line and crossed over the media bridge right above the finish line where everybody was stationed to take pictures of runners. and one of the women with us had high heels on. she was having trouble navigating the bridge so her heel got stuck in one of the steps as she was going down. delayed us probably 30 seconds or 50 feet and we were wait iin for our group to get together and i was on the sidewalk 50 feet from the first blast site. if it wasn't for that high heel, i would have been in middle of it. >> chilling when you think about it.
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it's a freaky kind of thing. >> it was. the almighty works in strange ways. this was a better finish to the week than the start. >> and that 23-year-old graduate student from boston university who was killed. she was just going right past you at that time just a few seconds ahead of you. >> yeah. we saw her. >> did you remember seeing her? >> we saw her leaving the scene with emts. >> you heard the explosion. you were right there and you saw that disaster. >> i looked to my right because i was watching the finish line. i saw the giant fireball go up the side of the building. and 15 seconds later, another blast further off and some of us were together and we said this is more than random now. this could be a ground zero because all the people were at
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boylston street. i was very impressed with boston's police and ems rush in in right away as well as the boston athletic association marathon volunteers in the yellow jackets rushing past us to go into harm's way. >> you're the city council president. how is your beautiful city doing? >> i think our beautiful city just showed the world how to take care of terrorism. i'm very boston proud today. i'm proud of our governor, our mayor, our police officials and all the people who led us through this last five-day period where we did what we had to do to get these people out of circulation. >> the fbi and federal law enforcement did a pretty good job too. >> i should have mentioned them at the outset. got to thank our president for giving us the resources direct from d.c. >> this is a real team project. >> it really was. the city was bowed but never broken. we're boston strong. >> just want to wrap it it up.
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it's over with now. you don't think there are any other suspects on the loose. as far as all the information you have gathered. >> i have no information relative to the investigation. i hope it's over. it's the toughest week i can remember in my years on this planet. >> thanks very much. >> thanks, wolf. >> great city you have here. love boston. as boston tries to return to normal, what road will sports play? the sox and bruins are about to play. fans are honoring the city in a special way. our own john vermen is standing by. that's next. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.
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about half an hour or so, sports fans here in boston will be rooting for their beloved boston red sox. they take on the royals. the sox will wear a special edition home jersey with the word boston on it it today honoring the victims in the boston marathon bombings. let's go to john berman over at fenway park. you love the red sox. you're from boston. give us a little flavor, the mood of the crowd over at fenway. >> reporter: wolf, i've been here about a thousand times in my life. maybe 10,000 times in my life. i have never felt energy like there is today at fenway. the fans who have been streaming past us by the ted williams
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statue say they would not miss this game for anything in the world. you have to remember this is the first game at fenway since the bombings last monday. in some ways they have framed this incredible week here in boston. the red sox played last monday morning before the boston marathon. that game let out an hour before the bombings. but then the red sox took off and went on a road trip. in some ways for the team, it's been an emotional week for them. they paid tribute to the people of boston while they were on the road. in some ways they started this boston strong. they have been putting up a shirt in the dugout that says "boston strong." last nigh's game they were supposed to play here last night. the game got cancelled as the city was really locked down. so this afternoon is the first chance that the team has to take the field and the first chance the city has to come together and celebrate each other. i think as everyone knows, the
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city takes the red sox very, very seriously. take their word for it. fenway is in some ways the very heart of the city. and they will be paying tribute today. the red sox in a special way. instead of the home white uniforms, it it will say boston on their uniforms and the players will sign those jerseys after the game and they will be auctioned off to support the one fund, which is in support of all the victims here of the attacks from last monday. so i have to say it is really unbelievable day to be outside here. >> great day to be at fenway park. i hope they raise a ton of money for that fund by auctioning off the jerseys. john, thanks very much. john berman over at fenway, a tough assignment for him, but he loves the boston red sox, thanks. we're going to get to more on the investigation coming up. we're going to explore the
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boston suspects and their ties to chechnya. what's going on here? we'll explain when we come back. ♪ girls and the guys wanna keep that credit score ♪ ♪ high like a private jet free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ don't forget! narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com when i first felt the diabetic nerve pain, of course, i had no idea what it was. i felt like my feet were going to sleep. it progressed from there to burning like i was walking on hot coals to like a thousand bees that were just stinging my feet. i have a great relationship with my doctor. he found lyrica for me. [ female announcer ] it's known that diabetes damages nerves. lyrica is fda approved to treat diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is not for everyone. it may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior.
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the two suspects in the boston bombing came from a volatile region of russia. they have ethnic groups in. break away republic of chechnya, which has a history of violence against russia, ties to muslim extremist groups. their family lives in dagestan, which is in russia. christopher swift is an expert on chechnya. a fellow at university of virginia law school. thanks very much for coming in. it's not clear whether the brothers ethnic ties played any
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role in their alleged terror actions, but what can you tell us regarding the connection that chechen radical groups have right now? what's going on as far as chechnya and russia is concerned and the possible spillover, if there is one, in the united states? >> sure, let's be clear, it's not clear to us yet based on the facts we have whether these two men had any organizational or operational connections to the caucuses em rit, which is the major insurgent group working in the surrounding areas. but let me back up and give your viewers a little bit of historical perspective. the tension between russia and chechnya goes back 250 years. since the soviet union fell apart, they tried on two occasions to declare their independence and set up an independent country. there have been two wars since the mid-1990s.
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the first was a separatist war. certainly the global ideology was a part of it. the second war e me it's a sized into something different. as a result that national movement morphed into a jihad movement similar to the pattern in syria today. now the question of a connection between these two bombers and the caucuses em rit, if i was in the fbi or the cia or u.s. government right now, i would want to know was there some kind of communication with a facilitator overseas like we saw with the fort hood shooting. i would want to know if there was training that occurred when the older brother was visiting there. such as the "new york times" square bomber.
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i was pretty convinced this was online radicalization, self-identification, but we need to determine whether there was some kind of mentor or facilitator on the other end and we need to determine whether there was any linkage or training on the other end. that's what the national security community will be looking at in the weeks moving ahead. >> there's a the lot of unanswered questions here and i'm sure you're right, they will be looking at that. christopher swift, thanks very much for that analysis. up next, more than 3,000 people injured. dozens have lost their lives after a powerful earthquake. we'll have an update on that. also our special coverage from here in boston will continue. [ male announcer ] the first look is only the beginning. ♪ ♪
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developing this hour a strong earthquake struck southwestern china this morning. at least 113 people are dead, more than 3,000 are injured. thousands of emergency workers and army have rushed to the area. the china earthquake administration says it was a magnitude 7.0 quake. much more on that story coming up later. more of our special live coverage here in boston in just a moment. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.
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we're live here in boston bringing you the latest information on the cap purr of the marathon bombing suspect. first we want to update you on the fertilizer plant explosion in texas. the death toll now is 14 following that massive
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fertilizer plant explosion that levelled parts of a small town. five of the dead were volunteer firefighters. 200 people were injured. the cause of blast is unknown. that's it it for this hour oop i'm wolf blitzer. when we come back, jake tapper will be next. we're americans. we work. we plan. ameriprise advisors can help you like they've helped millions of others. to help you retire your way, with confidence. ♪ that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. let's get to work. ameriprise financial. more within reach. redesigned site has this new score planner tool with these cool sliders. this one lets us know what happens if we get new credit cards. oh. this one here lets us know what happens if they raise our credit card limit. yeah. what's this one do? i dunno. may i respond negatively about your porcelain poodle?
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